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Elite PhD Scholarship: “Radical Children’s Literature”

I am excited that UTAS has approved the following Elite PhD Scholarship for a full time PhD candidate to work under my supervision on a topic falling within the broad notion of “Radical” Children’s Literature. Here are the details:

‘Radical’ Children’s Literature

Literature created for and by young people in contemporary times has changed radically from the literature of last century. Shifts in both cultural attitudes and the impact of new media have seen a radicalization of children’s literature in a number of ways. This scholarship offers the candidate scope for selecting and investigating one aspect of such “radical change” (Reynolds, 2010), including but not limited to the following: new forms of digital narrative; new forms of meta-fictive literature; new kinds of social practices about creating, remixing or innovating on literature (fan fiction, fictional blogging, virtual storytelling, online role-playing communities); or more challenging topics being taken up and explored in mainstream contemporary literature (sexuality, death, self-harm, horror, fear, trauma, or the “uncanny”). A strong interest and knowledge in literary and narrative theory would be a requirement for the theoretical underpinnings of the research. The study may be purely text-based research, or may include investigation of children’s responses to, or writing of, the selected literature focus.